Display sign



Nov. 15, 1960 E. M. CAFERRO 2,959,881

DISPLAY SIGN Filed Feb. 26, 1959 s Sheets-Sheet i INVENTOR. [dwam M. [afeno BY W dig.

Nov. 15, 1960 E. CAFERRO 2,959,881

7 DISPLAY SIGN Filed Feb. 26, 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. EQWcz/a M [eff/7o Nov. 15, 1960 E. M. CAFERRO DISPLAY SIGN Filed Feb. 26, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. Edward M [Life/ 0 BY WM.

United Stats EatentO DISPLAY SIGN Edward M. Caferro, Spokane, Wash, assignor to American Sign & Indicator- Corporation, Spokane, Wash, a corporation of Washington Filed Feb. 26, 1959, Ser. No. 795,692

4 Claims. (Cl. 40-142) The present invention relates to improvements in a display sign with changeable letters. It is the principal purpose of the invention to provide a changeable letter sign wherein the several letters are mounted on panels which are successively brought to the display position by rotating a carrier for the panels, and the letters are individually mounted by pairs of opposed upstanding ribs over which the letters hook, one rib of each pair being composed of a multitude of aligned holding lugs which are individually yieldable under pressure to enable the letters to be applied and removed.

More specifically the invention contemplates a display sign of the character above referred to wherein the individual holding lugs in a row are all yieldingly pressed toward letter locking position by a single compressible member.

The nature and advantages of the invention will appear more fully from the following description and the accompanying drawing which illustrates a preferred form of the invention. The drawings and description are illustrative only, however, and are not intended to limit the invention except insofar as it is limited by the claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front face view with parts broken away of a display sign embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on the line 33 of Figure l; and

Figure 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a holding lug which is part of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, my invention is embodied in a display sign which has a housing 5 of suitable design. This housing has a front opening 6 through which the changeable letter panels 7, 8 and 9 may be displayed in sequence. As shown, there are three of the display panels which for certain mechanical reasons work the best. However, a different number of panels may be used. According to the present invention the three panels are mounted by end walls 10 upon a shaft 11 that is supported for rotation in the housing 5. The shaft 11 has a pulley 12 thereon which is driven by a belt 13. The belt 13 is driven by a pulley 14 which is fixed on the shaft 15 of a drive mechanism 16 that is powered by a motor 17. Suitable timing means (not shown) stops the rotation of the shaft 11 with one of the panels 7, 8 or 9 vertically aligned with the opening 6 of the housing and keeps it there for a centain length of time, then again causes the motor 17 to rotate the pulley 14 far enough to bring the next one of said panels 7, 8 or 9 down into position in the opening or window 6. Mechanisms suitable for intermittently rotating a display device are common in the display sign art, so no specific mechanism is shown herein.

Each of the display panels has means mounted thereon to support a plurality of letters or other display units 18. To accomplish this purpose in such fashion as to provide 2,959,881 Patented Nov. 15, 1960 ICC for difierent sizes of display units, the panels 7, 8 and 9 have provisions for mounting corner bars 19 and intermediate carriers 20. The three corner bars 19 are alike so a description of one will sufiice for all of them.

Each corner bar 19 has two wing portions 21 and 22 diverging from each other at 60 degrees. These bars preferably are extruded from a suitable material such as aluminum and cut to the proper length.

The portions 21 and 22 have grooves 23 and 24 toreceive the edges of the adjacent panels such as 8 and 9. On the exterior face of the portion 21 is an outwardly directed flange 25 which has a rounded rib 26 atits outer edge. This rib 26 projects away from the panel seated in the groove 23 and is adapted to receive the hook 27 that is provided on each display unit 18. V

The wing portion 22 has a pair of lips 28 and 29 that project outwardly from its outer surface. These lips 28 and 29 are formed to provide a cylindrical channel 30 between them that is open outwardly, but is partially closed so as to receive a plurality of holding lugs 31. The holding lugs have cylindrical portions 32 seating against the correspondingly shaped surface of the channel 30 and reduced portions 33 projecting from the channel 30. The reduced portions 33 are narrower than the opening into the channel 30 so that a holding lug 31 can rock in the channel 30 through an angle of about thirty degrees. The holding lug 31 has a letter engaging rounded rib 34 thereon. Between the rib 34 and the reduced portion 33 and on the opposite side of the lug from the rib 34, the lug 31 has a lever arm 35 which has a tip 36 curved toward the cylindrical portion 32.

The several channels 30 are filled with holding lugs 31 by pushing the lugs in from one end of the channel 30. The ribs 34 of these lugs are positioned to face outwardly. To keep the lugs 31 in letter holding position a resilient member 37 is forced between the lever arms of the several lugs 31 and the adjacent surface of the wing portion 22 of the corner bar 19. This member 37 may be of rubber, either natural or synthetic, or of other resilient structure that will yieldingly oppose movement of the lugs toward letter releasing position. The rod-like member 37 can be readily replaced if it loses its resiliency or is damaged. It will be noted that a whole row of the lugs 31 are held in position by one member 37. A letter 18 may be hooked over any of the lugs 31 as desired.

Where it is desired to use letters smaller than the dis tance from the ribs 34 on the lugs 31 on one corner bar 19 to the rib 26 on the next corner bar 19, an intermediate holding lug carrier 20 is used. The carrier 20 is also preferably an extrusion like the corner bars 19 and the holding lugs 31. Each carrier 20 has its base flat to lie against one of the panels 7, 8 or 9, and is secured by suitable securing members such as screw bolts 39. A flange 40 is provided at one edge of the carrier 20 and this flange has a rib 41 to which letters may be hooked. The carrier 20 also has upstanding'ribs 42 and 43 shaped to provide a channel 44 like the channels 30 in all respects. The channel 44 receives a row of holding lugs 31. The lugs 31 are urged in letter retaining direction by another resilient member 37. Figure 3 illustrates the use of carriers 20 to provide two rows of letters of the same size on the panel 7 and two rows of letters of different size on the panel 8. A single row of letters of one large size is shown on the panel 9. The combination of the panels with the corner bars, the carriers, the letters and the holding lugs, makes a versatile display sign for changeable copy, yet it is extremely simple in construction and free of difficult maintenance problems. The basic elements are panels and extrusions that can be cut to any desired length. This keeps the cost of producing the display signs low.

The nature and advantages of my invention are believed to be clear from the foregoing description.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A display sign comprising a panel having opposed pairs of outwardly projecting letter mounting means thereon, each of said means having ribs adapted to engage letters having hooked ends, one of said letter mounting means in each pair comprising a series of individual pivotally mounted lugs, and resilient means disposed between said panel and said lugs whereby the ribs on the pivotally mounted lugs are urged in a direction away from the ribs on the opposed letter mounting means.

2. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein the panel has formed thereon a pair of parallel lips forming a longitudinal channel in which said lugs are slidably engaged.

3. The invention as defined in claim 1 wherein said lugs have levers formed thereon, said resilient means comprising an elongated rod formed of resilient material and interposed between the levers of a row of said lugs and the panel.

4. A display sign comprising a plurality of panels, the panels having spaced opposed pairs of outwardly projecting letter mounting means thereon, one of said-letter mounting means in each pair being movable toward and away from the opposed letter mounting means to facilitate application and removal of letters on the panels, said one letter mounting means comprising a series of holding lugs individually movable on a panel, and a common yieldable member urging said series of holding lugs in a direction to retain letters mounted thereon.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,048,040 Wagner July 21, 1936 2,171,462 Trollope Aug. 29, 1939 2,364,786 Hall Dec. 12, 1944 2,482,475 Gerber Sept. 20, 1949 

